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The popular video sharing service Vimeo has joined the Apple bandwagon, effectively shunning Flash in favor of a new embeddable HTML5 video player optimized for both the iPhone and iPad. Even though Vimeo introduced an HTML5-based video playback site in early 2010, this is the first time Vimeo has made it possible for users to embed vids with this new "Universal Player."

Essentially, the new offering is capable of deciphering the viewer's client and, subsequently, deliver the best playback option. You see, in the olden days, viewing embedded Vimeo videos was made possible though Adobe Flash. But that was then. The new "Apple standard" of video playback has influenced the way many top players in the digital video space have changed business as usual. So, in this regard, Vimeo is in good company.

According to the video sharing service, the new Universal Player serves up lower bandwidth videos to mobile clients and sends H.264 video to HTML5 devices. "While it was relatively easy to build an HTML5 player that worked on Vimeo.com," the company noted in its staff blog, "making an experience that could live and work anywhere is actually a big undertaking. For example, we had to write several new video players to replace what used to be just one: behind the scenes there is a new Flash player, new Flash mobile player, new iPad player, new iPhone player, and new HTML5 player. And we expect to add more."